A page from the medieval manuscript, depicting the personification of Naughtiness.

A widespread taste for pornography means that nature is alerting us to some threat of extinction.

- J.G. Ballard.

In this book, Robert Nye's version of the King Arthur legend, Guinevere is a stutterer, Arthur suffers from pathological sadism, and the devil prefers choir boys from virgins. But this is not why this book is interesting.

If a novel contains refined allusions to medieval theology and alchemy, makes an eye to the readers of Milton, Dante and Malory, has dialogues in Latin and metafictional interludes, only explicit pornography can save it from being torn to pieces by critics — and this is what happened to Nye's book. It presents a theory of conspiracy staying behind the Arthurian legend, at the same time offering a satirical interpretation of medieval culture based on Freudian psychoanalysis. Somehow, all this is done almost exclusively by the means of dialogues and pornography (and no, it really cannot be called erotica). If it had not been for the fact that if you recommended it to your friends they would know that you have read it, it would be much more popular than it is.

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